Shirt designed by Renad
Ms. Rachel wears shirt designed by 12-year-old Gazan girl
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- This continues Ms. Rachel’s pattern of pro-Palestinian activism.
Ms. Rachel wore a shirt on Thursday designed by Chef Renad, the 12-year-old Palestinian cook from Gaza.
She posted her photos donning the rose-colored shirt, with a drawing of a little girl, captioning it “Listen to @renadfromgaza a precious Palestinian child from Gaza who designed this art- “Children deserve to be children.”
The gesture continues Ms. Rachel's habit of using her visibility to put children from Gaza in front of a large audience.
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Renad
Renad became known to a global audience in 2024, when she was ten and sheltering in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
She built a following of more than 1.5 million on Instagram after a viral clip showed her joyfully discovering sugar in an aid box, and she had missed a full year of school because of the war.
Ms. Rachel
Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, is best known for her preschool learning videos. She has more than 18 million subscribers across YouTube and TikTok, and a Netflix show as well. Her advocacy for Gaza's children has grown steadily. She invited Rahaf, a 3-year-old double amputee evacuated from Gaza by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, onto her show, and she posted a tearful video of an emaciated Palestinian baby while holding her own newborn.
She has said she is willing to risk her career to keep speaking out. Her activism extends beyond Gaza: she launched a petition to close the Dilley immigration detention center, which drew more than 324,000 signatures, and this month she announced she would match Macklemore's $1 million donation to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
The clearest precedent for Thursday's shirt came in November 2025. Accepting a Glamour Women of the Year award, she wore a dress embroidered with drawings by nine children in Gaza, each labeled with the young artist's name, and held their photographs on the red carpet. In her speech she told the story of Rana, who wanted the world to know her sisters were not numbers.
The war’s toll on children
The children behind these designs live with the consequences of the war. As of early February 2026, UNICEF reported that at least 21,289 children had been killed in Gaza by ‘Israeli’ forces. Another 44,500 were injured.
The UN counted more than 64,000 children killed or injured between October 2023 and October 2025.
The ceasefire announced in October 2025 has not ended the violence. UNICEF says at least 300 children were reportedly killed in the roughly 300 days that followed, about one a day.
As recently as August 28, UNICEF reported four more children killed in five days, along with a destroyed nutrition warehouse and a damaged water facility serving some 2,000 children
